Halloween. I’m not a fan. Kids running around begging for sweets (or money now), usually without proper parental supervision. Adults getting dressed up as all manner of bizarre things and going to parties. Not me. I shall be sat at home, with my letterbox firmly taped up (thanks to some kids who chucked eggs in once), resolutely refusing to answer the door. My kids will be safely tucked up in bed.

Most people just see Halloween as a bit of fun and have no idea what it’s actually about. Let me enlighten you…

Halloween stems from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. The Celts celebrated their new year on 1 November, and this day marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of winter – a time of year they associated with death. The Celts believed that on the eve of the new year, 31 October for them, that the boundary between the worlds of living and dead became blurred.  They even believed that ghosts of the dead returned to earth at this time, causing trouble and damaging crops. They believed that these otherworldly spirits made it easier for Druids to foretell the future.

The Celts built huge bonfires and sacrificed crops and even animals to their gods. They dressed up in costumes – usually animal heads and skins – and spent the evening telling each other’s fortunes.

Later, when the Romans came, two Roman festivals were combined with Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day towards the end of October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a festival to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol is the apple, and this is the likely root of “bobbing” for apples that is often practiced today on Halloween.

In the 9th century, Pope Boniface IV designated 1 November as All Saints’ Day – a time to honour saints and martyrs. The pope was likely trying to replace Samhain with a church-sanctioned holiday. This celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas which comes from the ancient English word Alholowmesse, meaning All Saints’ Day. The night before began to be called All-hallows Eve, and from that we get the modern term Halloween.

A couple of hundred years later, the church, presumably forgetting their righteous interlude of trying to replace the festival of the dead with a more holy venture, then designated 2 November as All Souls’ Day – a day to honour the dead. This was celebrated in much the same way as Samhain and included big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils.

What about modern day Halloween customs…?

The Pumpkin has become synonymous with Halloween. The Celts believed that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit, so they used the head of the vegetable in their festival as a superstitious symbol. The name Jack O’Lantern traces back in Irish folklore to a greedy, gambling and hard-drinking old farmer called Stingy Jack. He is said to have tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree and then trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the Devil supposedly cursed Jack, condemning him to forever wander the Earth at night with the only light he had: a candle in a carved out turnip. The pumpkin was used over a turnip in North America as it is easier to carve.

Trick or treating resembles the late medieval practice of “souling”, when poor people would go from door to door on Hallowmas (1 November), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (2 November). This practice was famously mentioned by Shakespeare in his comedy The Two Gentleman of Verona (1593), when Speed accuses his master of “puling [whining], like a beggar at Hallowmas”.

In Ireland, they play a game called Puicini, where a blindfolded person sits in front of a table where saucers are placed. The saucers are shuffled and the person chooses one by touching it. The contents of the saucer then determines the person’s life during the following year. A saucer with earth foretells death, water foretells emigration, a ring foretells marriage, and many more.

Unmarried women were frequently told that if they sat in a dark room on Halloween and gazed into a mirror, they would see the face of their future husband. Alternatively, they might see a skull, which foretells their death before they could marry.

So, in summary Halloween is intrinsically linked with pagan festivals and occultism.

The UK is full of agnostic people who have no belief in a spirit world, good or bad, and as such see Halloween as just a bit of fun. In African countries where occultism is far more prevalent, there are far fewer agnostic people – largely because they can see the very real effects of dabbling in the occult.

I find it a bit strange though that Halloween should be so widely practiced in the UK, which is nominally a Christian country. Occultism is not a Christian practice at all. In fact, to be Christian means to be Christ-like, or an imitator of Christ. Frankly, I don’t believe Jesus would have had anything to do with any of this nonsense. His teachings were perfectly explicit on what happens to people when they die.

So, as someone with a Christian faith, I choose not to get involved with Halloween in any shape or form. Everyone else can use their free will to do whatever they please, provided that does not extend to anti-social behaviour outside my front door, which is just as unacceptable tonight as it is on every other night of the year. Whatever your beliefs, it’s always worth knowing just what it is that you are celebrating, then you can make an informed choice rather than just going along with the crowd because the novelty toy industry wants you to.